Blurred Boundaries_ASLA Nationals 2012 optimized

ASLA 2012 Professional Awards
Residential Design Category
Page | 1
Entry Number: 407
Project Title: Blurred Boundaries
Official Entrant: Design Workshop, Inc.
Landscape Architect of Record: Design Workshop, Inc.
Client/Owner: Confidential
Please indicate if you wish client name to be kept confidential: _X__yes ___no
Photography credit:
Plan Design Workshop, Inc.
Image 1 D.A. Horchner/Design Workshop, Inc.*
Image 2 D.A. Horchner/Design Workshop, Inc.*
Image 3 CCY Architects & Jason Jung/Estetico Group*
Image 4 D.A. Horchner/Design Workshop, Inc.*
Image 5 CCY Architects & Jason Jung/Estetico Group *
Image 6 D.A. Horchner/Design Workshop, Inc.*
Image 7 D.A. Horchner/Design Workshop, Inc.*
Image 8 D.A. Horchner/Design Workshop, Inc.*
Image 9 D.A. Horchner/Design Workshop, Inc., CCY Architects & Jason Jung/Estetico Group*
Image 10 D.A. Horchner/Design Workshop, Inc.*
Image 11 D.A. Horchner/Design Workshop, Inc.*
Image 12 D.A. Horchner/Design Workshop, Inc.*
Image 13 D.A. Horchner/Design Workshop, Inc.*
Image 14 D.A. Horchner/Design Workshop, Inc.*
Image 15 D.A. Horchner/Design Workshop, Inc.*
* INDICATES THAT NO HIGH-RESOLUTION PHOTOGRAPHS MAY BE ABLE TO BE DOWNLOADED FROM THE
WEBSITE SHOULD THE PROJECT RECEIVE AN AWARD.
Additional Project Credits:
Design Workshop Team Members: Richard Shaw, FASLA
Laura Miller
David Gregory
Architect: CCY Architects, Ltd.
Basalt, Colorado
General Contractor: New Age Homes
Basalt, Colorado
Landscape Contractor: Landscape Workshop
Carbondale, Colorado
ASLA 2012 Professional Awards
Residential Design Category
Page | 1
Entry Number: 407
Project Title: Blurred Boundaries
Project Location: Old Snowmass, Colorado
Project Type: Garden Design in a Rural Agricultural Setting
Project Summary | Blurred Boundaries emanates a sense of intimacy and human comfort in a monumental-size, rural
environment. Architecture and landscape architecture merge to create seamless and understated transitions between
environments and seek to redefine mountain homes by addressing water, material and energy consumption through innovative
bioclimatic design. The project defines the notion of successful teamwork, combining the team’s collective vision to visually and
physically connect the home and landscape to its larger ecology.
Purpose | The property owners, ranching and open-lands enthusiasts, felt strongly that their home should not impose itself on
the surrounding environment, but rather emerge from it in an organic and respectful manner. The home, set on a topographic
bench of land overlooking the Colorado River’s Capitol Creek Valley, is set low in the landscape, assuming an equal status with
the adjacent ranch land and capturing the panoramic views that surround it. The agricultural and domestic areas are so
successfully integrated that the wooden rail fences – visual markers in the landscape – are necessary only for keeping the horses
and cattle out of the garden areas. Masked by subtle berming and tree massing, the house is virtually invisible from the ranch
road leading to the property. The resulting effect creates a low-key environment, even resulting in frequent wildlife sightings of
bears, elk, deer and birds.
Collaboration of Bioclimatic Design Strategies | The challenge was to make the home feel like it belonged on this piece of land.
Moving beyond stylish influences, designers found equal importance the rural agricultural heritage. The home was inspired by
the designs of Cliff May, the 20th-century architect credited with recreating the modern American ranch house. The home
combines Western ranch house style with an element of modernism. The long central form and wings that extend out into the
landscape invite nature to become as much a part of the home as the furnishings. Indoor and outdoor spaces are lightly
separated with no changes in levels between interior and exterior spaces.
Working in close collaboration, the design team created a passive solar design – creating a heat sink with regional sandstone
flooring that retains heat during winter months and managing undesirable heat gain during peak solar hours via exterior sun
shade design. An outdoor courtyard and edible garden, situated to strategically take full advantage of the site’s solar exposure,
transitions from the interior living room.
The reciprocal relationship also facilitates mountain breezes to flow through the heart of the home. Windows extend to the roof,
bringing in additional natural light and allowing for cross-ventilation. Inside and out, materials are use horizontally, vertically and
even gapped to allow soft dappled light to filter inside, reminiscent of how barns have been built in the West for centuries.
Deciduous trees, strategically planted adjacent to the home, provide shade in the summer and allow solar radiation during the
winter months.
Special Factors | Like most agricultural lands in the region, the property is reliant upon water from the seasonally flowing
irrigation ditches that crisscross the surrounding ranch lands. However, the site’s existing irrigation ditch bisected the existing
building envelope designation. Instead of disturbing the flow of the historic channel, the landscape architect achieved approval
from the County for an alternative building envelope and incorporated the ditch as an entry feature. The ditch was replanted
with cottonwood trees and masses of willow and dogwood to re-create the familiar vegetative pattern seen in this region. The
approaching gravel drive remains informal, removing any notion of curbs and allowing water to infiltrate into the adjacent native
grass swales.
Embracing Outdoor Living | The landscape architect paid special attention to the microclimates the home’s design was expected
to create. Outdoor living areas close to the house provide a sense of protection and comfort, transitioning to the agrarian and
ASLA 2012 Professional Awards
Residential Design Category
Page | 2
native environments through the use of indigenous plants and water. The north courtyard, framed by a U-shaped section of the
home, is open to the sky but protected from the elements. Sheltered by the home, the courtyard is focused on activities
extending from the interior rooms, including the living room, which connects to the sandstone patio through large floor-to-ceiling
glass walls. Anchored by a rock fireplace and large rectangular seating boulders, the patio is set tight against the home. As
it merges into the garden area, the sandstone floor gradually fractures and becomes a soft carpet of creeping thyme and grass.
The perennial cutting garden is filled with flowers and herbs that bloom from spring through fall.
On the sunny south side, the terrace spans the side of the home, opening to the wide valley landscape beyond. A series of low
rock walls running both perpendicular and parallel to the house help to define the outdoor living spaces. Bold planting strokes of
sun-loving perennials bloom in walled garden beds adjacent to the kitchen and master bedroom doors. A sandstone patio
extension and lawn is meant for play and outdoor entertainment. Beyond, the pond and strategically placed groupings of aspen
and spruce trees provide foreground and structure to the spacious landscape. A solar heated lap pool stretches perpendicularly
from the house. Around the edges, tall native grasses, wetlands and then pasture lands spread out across the mountain valley.
Significance | The landscape architecture of Blurred Boundaries possesses underlying principles which meet many of the today’s
regional issues of sustainability, addressing every available “point” in a rigorous County Efficient Building Checklist. The checklist
addresses the reduction of construction waste and promotes recycled and renewable resources, energy efficiency, indoor air
quality, renewable energy, water conservation as well as efficient building techniques. Particular areas of focus include:
Water Cycle - Water consumption, considered one of the West’s most significant environmental dilemmas, was drastically
reduced by incorporating a zoned, low-drip irrigation system that is fed by on-site ponds for all defined planting areas.
Subtle contouring guides stormwater runoff to these ponds. Native plants, with their low-water needs and minimal
maintenance are used throughout the site, while turfgrass lawns are limited to an area for children’s play.
Energy Flows & Renewable Energy - Unlike many of the homes recently built in the area, this design avoids the use of
snowmelt and expansive areas of highly designed, non-permeable driving surfaces. Instead, a crushed stone arrival court
and series of trails facilitates stormwater infiltration. An on-site, renewable solar system is utilized to offset minimal
snowmelt and energy generation for heating the lap pool, enabling year-round use. The generous use of operable glass
allows for abundant natural light and encourages close relationships between indoor and outdoor spaces, joining the
domestic and the wild, while also facilitating passive solar radiation and cross-ventilation of mountain breezes. In following
the night-sky ordinance, excessive use of landscape lighting was limited to not disturb the valley’s migrating patterns.
Usage of Indigenous Materials - Materials were selected for low maintenance, durability and performance over time.
Rough-timber fencing and a multi-tiered plant palette support the residence, providing structure and an interesting
foreground to the long views. Terraces, pathways and the autocourt were constructed with either permeable paving or
with vegetated joints. Planted trees provide a natural windbreak from the elements, designed in a manner to appear as if
they’ve always been there. From wide swaths of native grasses that move in the wind and “Gro-Low’ sumac interspersed
here and there to Rocky Mountain columbine, larkspur, hosta and wood’s rose, each plant was carefully selected and
placed to look as if it sprung up quite naturally.
Land Use & Site Disturbance - In lieu of the traditional means of moving between levels through larger, vertical transitions,
the design followed the more constant slope of the site. Minor transitions reduced the amount of cut and full conditions,
minimized overall site disturbance and enabled all exterior terraces to be constructed on native soil versus requiring
compacted fill. This project defines the notion of successful teamwork; combining the team’s collective imagination and
the owners’ commitment to preserving remnants of the agricultural heritage of the valley.
ASLA 2012 Professional Awards Program
Captions: Blurred Boundaries
Image 1: The site design welcomes the native landscape to embrace the home, blurring the lines between
built and natural environments.
Image 2: Agricultural meadows delineated by fences and irrigation ditches provide a harmonious foreground
to a valley bounded by treeless ridgelines and high peaks. This transitional landscape grounds the ranch in
its pastoral setting and seamlessly integrates the built and natural environments.
Image 3: Humbly set into the existing open land, the house preserves the historical ridgeline views and rural
agrarian character. Grade changes were accommodated through minor 18-24” transitions throughout the
home and garden, allowing improvements to follow the site’s natural topography.
Image 4: The entry courtyard is enclosed by crafted stone walls, creating an intimate arrival experience that
contrasts to the property’s wide views. Designers avoided the use of snowmelt and expansive areas of
formal surfaces by using permeable gravel instead.
Image 5: The cool blues of Johnson’s Blue geranium and Rocky Mountain columbine contrast with the
vibrant persimmon-colored front door. An amur maple adds a soft texture to the stone and wood façade of
the house, while preserving views through the home to the distant pasture.
Image 6: The property relies on water of seasonal irrigation ditches. To preserve its historic course which
initially bisected the building envelope, designers successfully relocated the envelope and enhanced it with
cottonwoods, willows and dogwoods to achieve regional vegetative patterns.
Image 7: The landscape architect’s restrained hand and careful studying of views preserved mountain vistas
from interior spaces. Horizontal lines of architectural mullins reverberate into the landscape through linear
stone walls.
Image 8: Dynamic outdoor living spaces extend into the landscape, providing individuals the opportunity to
enjoy the Colorado environment. A native stone fireplace and large stone benches anchor the sheltered
northern space, while Rocky Mountain Columbine add seasonal color to the space.
Image 9: Working with the architect, designers researched bioclimatic strategies, creating a reciprocal
relationship between the home and landscape. During summer months, mountain breezes flow through the
home; during winter months, passive solar radiation (through generously-sized windows) heats interior
spaces.
Image 10: An enclosed garden blooms profusely throughout the summer. Raised beds contain vegetables
and herbs, providing the homeowners the opportunity to ‘live off the land’ through produce cultivation. The
perennial cutting garden includes a seasonal selection of delphinium, salvia, yarrow and bellflower.
Image 11: Perpendicular to the master bedroom, a southwest-facing lap pool and dining terrace extends into
the landscape. The dark shade of the pool accentuates the reflective nature of the still water while a
sandstone terrace accommodates a range of entertainment activities.
Image 12: Solar panels provide energy to heat the pool for year-round use. The layout is intentional, echoing
the linear patterns of the pool, its terrace and adjacent stone walls and the ridgeline view beyond.
Image 13: A foreground cluster of Quaking Aspens set in a horizontal swath of native Timonthy Grass
anchors the view to the lap pool. The designer’s light-handed approach provides the opportunity to embrace
the greater landscape environment.

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ASLA 2012 Professional Awards
Residential Design Category
Page | 1
Entry Number: 407
Project Title: Blurred Boundaries
Official Entrant: Design Workshop, Inc.
Landscape Architect of Record: Design Workshop, Inc.
Client/Owner: Confidential
Please indicate if you wish client name to be kept confidential: _X__yes ___no
Photography credit:
Plan Design Workshop, Inc.
Image 1 D.A. Horchner/Design Workshop, Inc.*
Image 2 D.A. Horchner/Design Workshop, Inc.*
Image 3 CCY Architects & Jason Jung/Estetico Group*
Image 4 D.A. Horchner/Design Workshop, Inc.*
Image 5 CCY Architects & Jason Jung/Estetico Group *
Image 6 D.A. Horchner/Design Workshop, Inc.*
Image 7 D.A. Horchner/Design Workshop, Inc.*
Image 8 D.A. Horchner/Design Workshop, Inc.*
Image 9 D.A. Horchner/Design Workshop, Inc., CCY Architects & Jason Jung/Estetico Group*
Image 10 D.A. Horchner/Design Workshop, Inc.*
Image 11 D.A. Horchner/Design Workshop, Inc.*
Image 12 D.A. Horchner/Design Workshop, Inc.*
Image 13 D.A. Horchner/Design Workshop, Inc.*
Image 14 D.A. Horchner/Design Workshop, Inc.*
Image 15 D.A. Horchner/Design Workshop, Inc.*
* INDICATES THAT NO HIGH-RESOLUTION PHOTOGRAPHS MAY BE ABLE TO BE DOWNLOADED FROM THE
WEBSITE SHOULD THE PROJECT RECEIVE AN AWARD.
Additional Project Credits:
Design Workshop Team Members: Richard Shaw, FASLA
Laura Miller
David Gregory
Architect: CCY Architects, Ltd.
Basalt, Colorado
General Contractor: New Age Homes
Basalt, Colorado
Landscape Contractor: Landscape Workshop
Carbondale, Colorado
ASLA 2012 Professional Awards
Residential Design Category
Page | 1
Entry Number: 407
Project Title: Blurred Boundaries
Project Location: Old Snowmass, Colorado
Project Type: Garden Design in a Rural Agricultural Setting
Project Summary | Blurred Boundaries emanates a sense of intimacy and human comfort in a monumental-size, rural
environment. Architecture and landscape architecture merge to create seamless and understated transitions between
environments and seek to redefine mountain homes by addressing water, material and energy consumption through innovative
bioclimatic design. The project defines the notion of successful teamwork, combining the team’s collective vision to visually and
physically connect the home and landscape to its larger ecology.
Purpose | The property owners, ranching and open-lands enthusiasts, felt strongly that their home should not impose itself on
the surrounding environment, but rather emerge from it in an organic and respectful manner. The home, set on a topographic
bench of land overlooking the Colorado River’s Capitol Creek Valley, is set low in the landscape, assuming an equal status with
the adjacent ranch land and capturing the panoramic views that surround it. The agricultural and domestic areas are so
successfully integrated that the wooden rail fences – visual markers in the landscape – are necessary only for keeping the horses
and cattle out of the garden areas. Masked by subtle berming and tree massing, the house is virtually invisible from the ranch
road leading to the property. The resulting effect creates a low-key environment, even resulting in frequent wildlife sightings of
bears, elk, deer and birds.
Collaboration of Bioclimatic Design Strategies | The challenge was to make the home feel like it belonged on this piece of land.
Moving beyond stylish influences, designers found equal importance the rural agricultural heritage. The home was inspired by
the designs of Cliff May, the 20th-century architect credited with recreating the modern American ranch house. The home
combines Western ranch house style with an element of modernism. The long central form and wings that extend out into the
landscape invite nature to become as much a part of the home as the furnishings. Indoor and outdoor spaces are lightly
separated with no changes in levels between interior and exterior spaces.
Working in close collaboration, the design team created a passive solar design – creating a heat sink with regional sandstone
flooring that retains heat during winter months and managing undesirable heat gain during peak solar hours via exterior sun
shade design. An outdoor courtyard and edible garden, situated to strategically take full advantage of the site’s solar exposure,
transitions from the interior living room.
The reciprocal relationship also facilitates mountain breezes to flow through the heart of the home. Windows extend to the roof,
bringing in additional natural light and allowing for cross-ventilation. Inside and out, materials are use horizontally, vertically and
even gapped to allow soft dappled light to filter inside, reminiscent of how barns have been built in the West for centuries.
Deciduous trees, strategically planted adjacent to the home, provide shade in the summer and allow solar radiation during the
winter months.
Special Factors | Like most agricultural lands in the region, the property is reliant upon water from the seasonally flowing
irrigation ditches that crisscross the surrounding ranch lands. However, the site’s existing irrigation ditch bisected the existing
building envelope designation. Instead of disturbing the flow of the historic channel, the landscape architect achieved approval
from the County for an alternative building envelope and incorporated the ditch as an entry feature. The ditch was replanted
with cottonwood trees and masses of willow and dogwood to re-create the familiar vegetative pattern seen in this region. The
approaching gravel drive remains informal, removing any notion of curbs and allowing water to infiltrate into the adjacent native
grass swales.
Embracing Outdoor Living | The landscape architect paid special attention to the microclimates the home’s design was expected
to create. Outdoor living areas close to the house provide a sense of protection and comfort, transitioning to the agrarian and
ASLA 2012 Professional Awards
Residential Design Category
Page | 2
native environments through the use of indigenous plants and water. The north courtyard, framed by a U-shaped section of the
home, is open to the sky but protected from the elements. Sheltered by the home, the courtyard is focused on activities
extending from the interior rooms, including the living room, which connects to the sandstone patio through large floor-to-ceiling
glass walls. Anchored by a rock fireplace and large rectangular seating boulders, the patio is set tight against the home. As
it merges into the garden area, the sandstone floor gradually fractures and becomes a soft carpet of creeping thyme and grass.
The perennial cutting garden is filled with flowers and herbs that bloom from spring through fall.
On the sunny south side, the terrace spans the side of the home, opening to the wide valley landscape beyond. A series of low
rock walls running both perpendicular and parallel to the house help to define the outdoor living spaces. Bold planting strokes of
sun-loving perennials bloom in walled garden beds adjacent to the kitchen and master bedroom doors. A sandstone patio
extension and lawn is meant for play and outdoor entertainment. Beyond, the pond and strategically placed groupings of aspen
and spruce trees provide foreground and structure to the spacious landscape. A solar heated lap pool stretches perpendicularly
from the house. Around the edges, tall native grasses, wetlands and then pasture lands spread out across the mountain valley.
Significance | The landscape architecture of Blurred Boundaries possesses underlying principles which meet many of the today’s
regional issues of sustainability, addressing every available “point” in a rigorous County Efficient Building Checklist. The checklist
addresses the reduction of construction waste and promotes recycled and renewable resources, energy efficiency, indoor air
quality, renewable energy, water conservation as well as efficient building techniques. Particular areas of focus include:
Water Cycle - Water consumption, considered one of the West’s most significant environmental dilemmas, was drastically
reduced by incorporating a zoned, low-drip irrigation system that is fed by on-site ponds for all defined planting areas.
Subtle contouring guides stormwater runoff to these ponds. Native plants, with their low-water needs and minimal
maintenance are used throughout the site, while turfgrass lawns are limited to an area for children’s play.
Energy Flows & Renewable Energy - Unlike many of the homes recently built in the area, this design avoids the use of
snowmelt and expansive areas of highly designed, non-permeable driving surfaces. Instead, a crushed stone arrival court
and series of trails facilitates stormwater infiltration. An on-site, renewable solar system is utilized to offset minimal
snowmelt and energy generation for heating the lap pool, enabling year-round use. The generous use of operable glass
allows for abundant natural light and encourages close relationships between indoor and outdoor spaces, joining the
domestic and the wild, while also facilitating passive solar radiation and cross-ventilation of mountain breezes. In following
the night-sky ordinance, excessive use of landscape lighting was limited to not disturb the valley’s migrating patterns.
Usage of Indigenous Materials - Materials were selected for low maintenance, durability and performance over time.
Rough-timber fencing and a multi-tiered plant palette support the residence, providing structure and an interesting
foreground to the long views. Terraces, pathways and the autocourt were constructed with either permeable paving or
with vegetated joints. Planted trees provide a natural windbreak from the elements, designed in a manner to appear as if
they’ve always been there. From wide swaths of native grasses that move in the wind and “Gro-Low’ sumac interspersed
here and there to Rocky Mountain columbine, larkspur, hosta and wood’s rose, each plant was carefully selected and
placed to look as if it sprung up quite naturally.
Land Use & Site Disturbance - In lieu of the traditional means of moving between levels through larger, vertical transitions,
the design followed the more constant slope of the site. Minor transitions reduced the amount of cut and full conditions,
minimized overall site disturbance and enabled all exterior terraces to be constructed on native soil versus requiring
compacted fill. This project defines the notion of successful teamwork; combining the team’s collective imagination and
the owners’ commitment to preserving remnants of the agricultural heritage of the valley.
ASLA 2012 Professional Awards Program
Captions: Blurred Boundaries
Image 1: The site design welcomes the native landscape to embrace the home, blurring the lines between
built and natural environments.
Image 2: Agricultural meadows delineated by fences and irrigation ditches provide a harmonious foreground
to a valley bounded by treeless ridgelines and high peaks. This transitional landscape grounds the ranch in
its pastoral setting and seamlessly integrates the built and natural environments.
Image 3: Humbly set into the existing open land, the house preserves the historical ridgeline views and rural
agrarian character. Grade changes were accommodated through minor 18-24” transitions throughout the
home and garden, allowing improvements to follow the site’s natural topography.
Image 4: The entry courtyard is enclosed by crafted stone walls, creating an intimate arrival experience that
contrasts to the property’s wide views. Designers avoided the use of snowmelt and expansive areas of
formal surfaces by using permeable gravel instead.
Image 5: The cool blues of Johnson’s Blue geranium and Rocky Mountain columbine contrast with the
vibrant persimmon-colored front door. An amur maple adds a soft texture to the stone and wood façade of
the house, while preserving views through the home to the distant pasture.
Image 6: The property relies on water of seasonal irrigation ditches. To preserve its historic course which
initially bisected the building envelope, designers successfully relocated the envelope and enhanced it with
cottonwoods, willows and dogwoods to achieve regional vegetative patterns.
Image 7: The landscape architect’s restrained hand and careful studying of views preserved mountain vistas
from interior spaces. Horizontal lines of architectural mullins reverberate into the landscape through linear
stone walls.
Image 8: Dynamic outdoor living spaces extend into the landscape, providing individuals the opportunity to
enjoy the Colorado environment. A native stone fireplace and large stone benches anchor the sheltered
northern space, while Rocky Mountain Columbine add seasonal color to the space.
Image 9: Working with the architect, designers researched bioclimatic strategies, creating a reciprocal
relationship between the home and landscape. During summer months, mountain breezes flow through the
home; during winter months, passive solar radiation (through generously-sized windows) heats interior
spaces.
Image 10: An enclosed garden blooms profusely throughout the summer. Raised beds contain vegetables
and herbs, providing the homeowners the opportunity to ‘live off the land’ through produce cultivation. The
perennial cutting garden includes a seasonal selection of delphinium, salvia, yarrow and bellflower.
Image 11: Perpendicular to the master bedroom, a southwest-facing lap pool and dining terrace extends into
the landscape. The dark shade of the pool accentuates the reflective nature of the still water while a
sandstone terrace accommodates a range of entertainment activities.
Image 12: Solar panels provide energy to heat the pool for year-round use. The layout is intentional, echoing
the linear patterns of the pool, its terrace and adjacent stone walls and the ridgeline view beyond.
Image 13: A foreground cluster of Quaking Aspens set in a horizontal swath of native Timonthy Grass
anchors the view to the lap pool. The designer’s light-handed approach provides the opportunity to embrace
the greater landscape environment.